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Itzhak Fouxon

Publications and source records attributed to Itzhak Fouxon.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Solvable continuous time random walk model of the motion of tracer particles through porous media

We consider the continuous time random walk model (CTRW) of tracer's motion in porous medium flows based on the experimentally determined distributions of pore velocity and pore size reported in Holzner et al. Phys. Rev. E 92, 013015 (2015). The particle's passing through one channel is modelled as one step of the walk. The step's (channel) length is random and the walker's velocity at consecutive steps of the walk is conserved with finite probability mimicking that at the turning point there could be no abrupt change of velocity. We provide the Laplace transform of the characteristic function of the walker's position and reductions for different cases of independence of the CTRW's step's duration τ, length l and velocity v. We solve our model with independent l and v. The model incorporates different forms of the tail of the probability density of small velocities that vary with the model parameter α. Depending on that parameter all types of anomalous diffusion can hold, from super- to subdiffusion. In a finite interval of α, ballistic behavior with logarithmic corrections holds that was observed in a previously introduced CTRW model with independent l and τ. Universality of tracer's diffusion in the porous medium is considered.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Inhomogeneous preferential concentration of inertial particles in turbulent channel flow

Turbophoresis leading to preferential concentration of inertial particles in regions of low turbulent diffusivity is a unique feature of inhomogeneous turbulent flows, such as free shear flows or wall-bounded flows. In this work, the theory for clustering of weakly inertial particles in homogeneous turbulence is extended to the inhomogeneous case of a turbulent channel flow. The inhomogeneity contributes to the cluster formation in addition to clustering in homogeneous turbulence. A space-dependent rate for the creation of inhomogeneous particle concentration is derived in terms of local statistics of turbulence. We provide the formula for the pair-correlation function of concentration that factorizes in product of time and space-dependent average concentrations and time-independent factor of clustering that obeys a power-law in the distance between the points. This power-law characterizes inhomogeneous multifractality of the particle distribution. A unique demonstration and quantification of the combined effects of turbophoresis and fractal clustering in a direct numerical simulation of particle motion in a turbulent channel flow is performed according to the presented theory. The strongest contribution to clustering coming from the inhomogeneity of the flow occurs in the transitional region between viscous sublayer and the buffer layer. Further the ratio of homogeneous and inhomogeneous term depends on the wall distance. The inhomogeneous terms may significantly increase the preferential concentration of inertial particles, thus the overall degree of clustering in inhomogeneous turbulence is potentially stronger compared to particles with the same inertia in purely homogeneous turbulence.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Limit theorems for Lévy walks in $d$ dimensions: rare and bulk fluctuations

We consider super-diffusive Lévy walks in $d \geqslant 2$ dimensions when the duration of a single step, i.e., a ballistic motion performed by a walker, is governed by a power-law tailed distribution of infinite variance and finite mean. We demonstrate that the probability density function (PDF) of the coordinate of the random walker has two different scaling limits at large times. One limit describes the bulk of the PDF. It is the $d-$dimensional generalization of the one-dimensional Lévy distribution and is the counterpart of central limit theorem (CLT) for random walks with finite dispersion. In contrast with the one-dimensional Lévy distribution and the CLT this distribution does not have universal shape. The PDF reflects anisotropy of the single-step statistics however large the time is. The other scaling limit, the so-called 'infinite density', describes the tail of the PDF which determines second (dispersion) and higher moments of the PDF. This limit repeats the angular structure of PDF of velocity in one step. Typical realization of the walk consists of anomalous diffusive motion (described by anisotropic $d-$dimensional Lévy distribution) intermitted by long ballistic flights (described by infinite density). The long flights are rare but due to them the coordinate increases so much that their contribution determines the dispersion. We illustrate the concept by considering two types of Lévy walks, with isotropic and anisotropic distributions of velocities. Furthermore, we show that for isotropic but otherwise arbitrary velocity distribution the $d-$dimensional process can be reduced to one-dimensional Lévy walk.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

Inertial particles distribute in turbulence as Poissonian points with random intensity inducing clustering and supervoiding

This work considers the distribution of inertial particles in turbulence using the point-particle approximation. We demonstrate that the random point process formed by the positions of particles in space is a Poisson point process with log-normal random intensity ("log Gaussian Cox process" or LGCP). The probability of having a finite number of particles in a small volume is given in terms of the characteristic function of a log-normal distribution. Corrections due to discreteness of the number of particles to the previously derived statistics of particle concentration in the continuum limit are provided. These are relevant for dealing with experimental or numerical data. The probability of having regions without particles, i.e. voids, is larger for inertial particles than for tracer particles where voids are distributed according to Poisson processes. Further, the probability of having large voids decays only log-normally with size. This shows that particles cluster, leaving voids behind. At scales where there is no clustering there can still be an increase of the void probability so that turbulent voiding is stronger than clustering. The demonstrated double stochasticity of the distribution originates in the two-step formation of fluctuations. First, turbulence brings the particles randomly close together which happens with Poisson-type probability. Then, turbulence compresses the particles' volume in the observation volume. We confirm the theory of the statistics of the number of particles in small volumes by numerical observations of inertial particle motion in a chaotic ABC flow. The improved understanding of clustering processes can be applied to predict the long-time survival probability of reacting particles. Our work implies that the particle distribution in weakly compressible flow with finite time correlations is a LGCP, independently of the details of the flow statistics.

physics.flu-dyn↗

On phoretic clustering of particles in turbulence

We demonstrate that diffusiophoretic, thermophoretic and chemotactic phenomena in turbulence lead to clustering of particles on multi-fractal sets that can be described using one single framework, valid when the particle size is much smaller than the smallest length scale of turbulence $l_0$. To quantify the clustering, we derive positive pair correlations and fractal dimensions that hold for scales smaller than $l_0$. Statistics of the number of particles in a small volume are non-Poissonian manifesting deviations from the case of uncorrelated particles. For scales larger than $l_0$ we predict a stretched exponential decay to 1 of the pair correlation function. For the case of inhomogeneous turbulence we find that the fractal dimension depends on the inhomogeneous direction. By performing experiments of clustering of diffusiophoretic particles induced by salinity gradients in a turbulent gravity current we demonstrate clustering in conformity to the theory. The particle size in the experiment is comparable to $l_0$, outside the strict validity region of the theory, suggesting that the theoretical predictions transfer to this practically relevant regime. This clustering mechanism can provide the key to the understanding of a multitude of processes such as formation of marine snow in the ocean and population dynamics of chemotactic bacteria.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Impact of turbulence on the stratified flow around small particles

We study the turbulent flow of the density-stratified fluid around a small translating (either passively or self-propelled) particle. It was found recently [A. M. Ardekani and R. Stocker, Phys. Rev. Lett. vol. 105, 084502 (2010)] that without turbulence, the familiar Stokes flow is dramatically altered by the stratification. Stratification-induced inhomogeneity "turns on" the buoyancy introducing a new "cutoff" or "screening" length scale for the flow, yielding closed streamlines and a faster (exponential-like) decay of velocity. This result, however, did not account for the potential role of the background turbulence, intrinsically present in many aquatic environments. Turbulence mixes the density opposing the effect. Here we derive and solve the advection-diffusion equation that describes the interplay of turbulent mixing, diffusion of the stratifying agent and buoyancy. We derive an exact expression for fluctuations due to weak background turbulence and show that stronger turbulence can completely change the flow around the particle, canceling the effect of stratification and restoring the unstratified Stokes flow.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Universal statistics of density of inertial particles sedimenting in turbulence

We solve the problem of spatial distribution of inertial particles that sediment in Navier-Stokes turbulence with small ratio $Fr$ of acceleration of fluid particles to acceleration of gravity $g$. The particles are driven by linear drag and have arbitrary inertia. We demonstrate that independently of the particles' size or density the particles distribute over fractal set with log-normal statistics determined completely by the Kaplan-Yorke dimension $D_{KY}$. When inertia is not small $D_{KY}$ is proportional to the ratio of integral of spectrum of turbulence multiplied by wave-number and $g$. This ratio is independent of properties of particles so that the particles concentrate on fractal with universal, particles-independent statistics. We find Lyapunov exponents and confirm predictions numerically. The considered case includes typical situation of water droplets in clouds.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Inhomogeneous distribution of droplets in cloud turbulence

We solve the problem of spatial distribution of inertial particles that sediment in turbulent flow with small ratio of acceleration of fluid particles to acceleration of gravity $g$. The particles are driven by linear drag and have arbitrary inertia. The pair-correlation function of concentration obeys a power-law in distance with negative exponent. Divergence at zero signifies singular distribution of particles in space. Independently of particle size the exponent is ratio of integral of energy spectrum of turbulence times the wavenumber to $g$ times numerical factor. We find Lyapunov exponents and confirm predictions by direct numerical simulations of Navier-Stokes turbulence. The predictions include typical case of water droplets in clouds. This significant progress in the study of turbulent transport is possible because strong gravity makes the particle's velocity at a given point unique.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Convective stability of turbulent Boussinesq flow in the dissipative range and flow around small particles

We consider arbitrary, possibly turbulent, Boussinesq flow which is smooth below a dissipative scale $l_d$. It is demonstrated that the stability of the flow with respect to growth of fluctuations with scale smaller than $l_d$ leads to a non-trivial constraint. That involves the dimensionless strength $Fl$ of fluctuations of the gradients of the scalar in the direction of gravity and the Rayleigh scale $L$ depending on the Rayleigh number $Ra$, the Nusselt number $Nu$ and $l_d$. The constraint implies that the stratified fluid at rest, which is linearly stable, develops instability in the limit of large $Ra$. This limits observability of solution for the flow around small swimmer in quiescent stratified fluid that has closed streamlines at scale $L$ [A. M. Ardekani and R. Stocker, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 084502 (2010)]. Correspondingly to study the flow at scale $L$ one has to take turbulence into account. We demonstrate that the resulting turbulent flow around small particles or swimmers can be described by scalar integro-differential advection-diffusion equation. Describing the solutions we show that closed streamlines persist with finite probability. Our results seem to be the necessary basis in understanding flows around small swimmers.

nlin.CD↗

Inhomogeneous quasi-stationary state of dense fluid of inelastic hard spheres

We study closed dense collections of hard spheres that collide inelastically with constant coefficient of normal restitution. We find inhomogeneous states (IS) where the density profile is spatially non-uniform but constant in time. The states are exact solutions of non-linear partial differential equations that describe the coupled distributions of density and temperature when inelastic losses of energy per collision are small. The derivation is performed without modelling the equations' coefficients that are unknown in the dense limit (such as the equation of state), using only their scaling form specific for hard spheres. The IS is exact non-linear state of this many-body system. It captures a fundamental property of inelastic collections of particles: the possibility of preserving non-uniform temperature via the interplay of inelastic cooling and heat conduction, generalizing previous results in the dilute case. We perform numerical simulations to demonstrate that arbitrary initial state evolves to the IS in the limit of long times where the container has the geometry of the channel. The evolution is like gas-liquid transition. The liquid condenses in a vanishing part of the total volume but takes most of the mass of the system. However, the gaseous phase, which mass grows only logarithmically with the system size, is relevant because its fast particles carry most of the energy of the system. Remarkably, the system self-organizes to dissipate no energy: the inelastic decay of energy is a power-law $[1+t/t_c]^{-2}$ where $t_c$ diverges in the thermodynamic limit. This behavior is caused by unusual spatial distribution of particles: on approach to one of the container's walls the density grows inversely with the distance. We discuss the relation of our results to the recently proposed finite-time singularity in other container's geometries.

nlin.CD↗

Effect of distinguishability of patterns of collisions of particles in a non-equilibrium chaotic system

We follow the time sequence of binary elastic collisions in a small collection of hard-core particles. Intervals between the collisions are characterized by the numbers of collisions of different pairs in a given time. It was shown previously that due to the ergodicity these numbers grow with time as a biased random walk. We show that this implies that for a typical trajectory in the phase space each particle has "preferences" that are stable during indefinitely long periods of time. During these periods the particle collides more with certain particles and less with others. Thus there is a clearly distinguishable pattern of collisions of the particle with other particles, as determined by its initial position and velocity. The effect holds also for the dilute gas with arbitrary short-range interactions allowing for experimental testing. It is the mechanical counterpart to the classical probabilistic observation that "in a population of normal coins the majority is necessarily maladjusted" \cite{Feller}.

nlin.CD↗

Evolution of collision numbers for a chaotic gas dynamics

We put forward a conjecture of recurrence for a gas of hard spheres that collide elastically in a finite volume. The dynamics consists of a sequence of instantaneous binary collisions. We study how the numbers of collisions of different pairs of particles grow as functions of time. We observe that these numbers can be represented as a time-integral of a function on the phase space. Assuming the results of the ergodic theory apply, we describe the evolution of the numbers by an effective Langevin dynamics. We use the facts that hold for these dynamics with probability one, in order to establish properties of a single trajectory of the system. We find that for any triplet of particles there will be an infinite sequence of moments of time, when the numbers of collisions of all three different pairs of the triplet will be equal. Moreover, any value of difference of collision numbers of pairs in the triplet will repeat indefinitely. On the other hand, for larger number of pairs there is but a finite number of repetitions. Thus the ergodic theory produces a limitation on the dynamics.

nlin.CD↗

The impact of hydrodynamic interactions on the preferential concentration of inertial particles in turbulence

We consider a dilute gas of inertial particles transported by the turbulent flow. Due to inertia the particles concentrate preferentially outside vortices. The pair-correlation function of the particles' concentration is known to obey at small separations a power-law with a negative exponent, if the hydrodynamic interactions between the particles are neglected. The divergence at zero separation is the signature of the random attractor asymptoted by the particles' trajectories at large times. However the hydrodynamic interactions produce a repulsion between the particles that is non-negligible at small separations. We introduce equations governing the repulsion and show it smoothens the singular attractor near the particles where the pair correlation function saturates. The effect is most essential at the Stokes number of order one, where the correlations decrease by a factor of a few.

nlin.CD↗

Dynamics of threads and polymers in turbulence: power-law distributions and synchronization

We study the behavior of threads and polymers in a turbulent flow. These objects have finite spatial extension, so the flow along them differs slightly. The corresponding drag forces produce a finite average stretching and the thread is stretched most of the time. Nevertheless, the probability of shrinking fluctuations is significant and is known to decay only as a power-law. We show that the exponent of the power law is a universal number independent of the statistics of the flow. For polymers the coil-stretch transition exists: the flow must have a sufficiently large Lyapunov exponent to overcome the elastic resistance and stretch the polymer from the coiled state it takes otherwise. The probability of shrinking from the stretched state above the transition again obeys a power law but with a non-universal exponent. We show that well above the transition the exponent becomes universal and derive the corresponding expression. Furthermore, we demonstrate synchronization: the end-to-end distances of threads or polymers above the transition are synchronized by the flow and become identical. Thus, the transition from Newtonian to non-Newtonian behavior in dilute polymer solutions can be seen as an ordering transition.

nlin.CD↗

Distribution of Brownian particles in turbulence

We consider Brownian particles immersed in the fluid which flow is turbulent. We study the limit where the particles' inertia is weak and their velocity relaxes fast to the velocity of the flow. The trajectories of the particles in this case have a strange attractor in the physical space, if the particles' diffusion is neglected. Under the latter condition the singular density of the particles was recently described completely. The analysis was done for real turbulence and did not involve the flow modeling. Here we take the diffusion into account showing how it modifies the statistics. The analysis is performed also for real turbulence. Experimentally testable predictions are made.

nlin.CD↗

Construction and description of the stationary measure of weakly dissipative dynamical systems

We consider the stationary measure of the dissipative dynamical system in a finite volume. A finite dissipation, however small, generally makes the measure singular, while at zero dissipation the measure is constant. Thus dissipative part of the dynamics is a singular perturbation producing an infinite change in the measure. This is a result of the infinite time of evolution that enhances the small effects of dissipation to form singularities. We show how to deal with the singularity of the perturbation and describe the statistics of the measure. We derive all the correlation functions and the statistics of "mass" contained in a small ball. The spectrum of dimensions of the attractor is obtained. The fractal dimension is equal to the space dimension, while the information dimension is equal to the Kaplan-Yorke dimension.

nlin.CD↗

Distribution of particles and bubbles in turbulence at small Stokes number

The inertia of particles driven by the turbulent flow of the surrounding fluid makes them prefer certain regions of the flow. The heavy particles lag behind the flow and tend to accumulate in the regions with less vorticity, while the light particles do the opposite. As a result of the long-time evolution, the particles distribute over a multi-fractal attractor in space. We consider this distribution using our recent results on the steady states of chaotic dynamics. We describe the preferential concentration analytically and derive the correlation functions of density and the fractal dimensions of the attractor. The results are obtained for real turbulence and are testable experimentally.

nlin.CD↗

Evolution to a singular measure and two sums of Lyapunov exponents

We consider dissipative dynamical systems represented by a smooth compressible flow in a finite domain. The density evolves according to the continuity (Liouville) equation. For a general, non-degenerate flow the result of the infinite time evolution of an initially smooth density is a singular measure. We give a condition for the non-degeneracy which allows to decide for a given flow whether the infinite time limit is singular. The condition uses a Green-Kubo type formula for the space-averaged sum of forward and backward-in-time Lyapunov exponents. We discuss how the sums determine the fluctuations of the entropy production rate in the SRB state and give examples of computation of the sums for certain velocity fields.

nlin.CD↗